1993 Russian constitutional crisis

The 1993 Russian constitutional crisis was a political standoff between Russian president Boris Yeltsin and the Supreme Soviet of Russia parliament that was resolved with military force. The crisis was caused by Yeltsin's unconstitutional attempts to dissolve the county's legislature, and the army, which remained loyal to Yeltsin, stormed the Supreme Soviet building and arrested the leaders of the resistance. The ten-day conflict left 187 people dead and 437 wounded.

Background
The Soviet Union was formally voted out of existence by the Supreme Soviet of Russia on 26 December 1991, and Boris Yeltsin became the first President of Russia. On 2 January 1992, Yeltsin implemented his economic reform program, and prices skyrocketed, government spending was slashed, and heavy new taxes went into effect. A deep credit crunch shut down many industries and brought about a protracted depression, setting the stage for a rivalry beteween Yeltsin's supporters and opponents of the economic reforms. Throughout 1992, opposition to Yeltsin's reform policies grew stronger among bureaucrats, regional leaders, and industralists, and Vice President Alexander Rutskoy denounced Yeltsin's program as "economic genocide". Leaders of oil-rich Tatarstan and Bashkiria called for independence from Russia as the situation worsened.

1992 was also the year in which Yeltsin's special powers were set to expire. Yeltsin demanded that parliament reinstate his decree powers, but several parliamentary deputies refused to grant Yeltsin even more power. On 9 December 1992, Parliament refused to confirm the widely unpopular Yegor Gaidar - the architect of the liberal economic reforms - as Prime Minister. A day later, Yeltsin angrily accused the Congress of blocking the government's reforms and suggested that the people decide on a referendum as to whether they wanted to follow either Yeltsin's or Congress' paths. Parliament responded by voting to take control of the parliamentary army. On 12 December, Yeltsin and Parliament speaker Ruslan Khasbulatov agreed for a constitutional referendum to be held in April 1993, for most of Yeltsin's emergency powers to be extended until the referendum, that Parliament could nominate and vote on its own choices for Prime Minister, and that Parliament could block Yeltsin's cabinet nominees.

On 10 March 1993, the eighth Congress of People's Deputies opened with a strong attack on the president by Khasbulatov, who accused Yeltsin of acting unconstitutionally. In mid-March, an emergency session of Congress voted to amend the constitution, strip Yeltsin of many of his powers, and cancel the scheduled April referendum. The president stalked out of the Congress, and the referendum went ahead on 25 April. On 20 March, Yeltsin addressed the nation directly on television, declaring that he would assume extraordinary executive power pending the results of the referendum on the timing of new legislative elections, on a new constitution, and on public confidence in the president and vice-president. Yeltsin also accused the Congress deputies of trying to restore the Soviet-era order. Soon after Yeltsin's announcement, Rutskoy and his supporters condemned Yeltsin's declaration as unconstitutional. On 28 March, Yeltsin narrowly survived an impeachment vote, falling 72 short of the 689 votes needed for a two-thirds majority. The legislative branch came to be dominated by the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, the Agrarian Union of Russia, and the Russian All-People's Union, as well as communists, retired military personnel, deputies of a socialist orientation, and nationalists. Yeltsin's supporters and centrists were clearly left in the minority.

The referendum of 25 April asked whether citizens had confidence in Yeltsin, approved of his reforms, and supported early presidential and legislative elections, and the Parliament voted that, in order to win, Yeltsin needed to obtain 50% of the whole electorate, rather than 50% of those actually voting, to avoid an early presidential election. Before the referendum, Yeltsin promised to resign if the electorate failed to express confidence in his policies. However, a majority of voters supported Yeltsin and called for new legislative elections, and Yeltsin termed the results as a mandate for him to continue in power. This led to violent anti-government protests on 1 May.

On 12 July, a special assembly of the Federation Council adopted a draft constitution which envisaged a bicameral legislature and the dissolution of the Congress. The Supreme Soviet immediately rejected the draft and declared that, as the supreme lawmaking body, Congress would decide on the new constitution. In August, Yeltsin declared that he would employ all means, including circumventing the Constitution, to hold new parliamentary elections. On 1 September, Yeltsin attempted to suspend Rutskoy as Vice President, but the Supreme Soviet rejected the suspension on 3 September. Two weeks later, Yeltsin announced that he would agree to call early presidential elections provided that parliament also called elections.

Crisis
On 21 September, Yeltsin declared the Supreme Soviet dissolved, contradicting a number of articles of the Constitution of 1978. Yeltsin claimed that he was preparing for a rapid transition to a functioning market economy, and he received strong backing from Western powers such as the United States. The next day, the Constitutional Court held that Yeltsin had violated the constitution and began the impeachment process against him. Yeltsin was formally impeached on 23 September and Rutskoy was declared acting president, taking the oath on a constitution. He dismissed Yeltsin and the key ministers Pavel Grachev, Nikolay Golushko, and Viktor Yerin, and Russia now had two governments and cabinets.

On 24 September, an undaunted Yeltsin announced presidential elections for next June, and, a day later, he cut off electricity, phone service, and hot water to the White House parliament building. Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Moscow to bolster the parliamentary cause, protesting against the deterioriating living conditions. The protesters included both nationalists and communists, and, on 28 September, the special police clashed with anti-Yeltsin demonstrators. On 1 October, 600 armed men with a large cache of arms joined the occupants of the White House. Talks between the two sides, mediated by the Orthodox Patriarch of Moscow, failed, and, on 2 October, parliamentarians barricaded Moscow's main streets and obstructed traffic. Rutskoy urged the crowds to form battalions and seize the mayor's office and national television center, and he also called for the storming of the Kremlin and the imprisonment of the usurper Yeltsin. At 4:00 PM, Yeltsin signed a decree declaring a state of emergency in Moscow.

On the evening of 3 October, pro-parliament demonstrators and gunmen led by General Albert Makashov moved towards the Ostankino television center, and they met Interior Ministry and special forces soldiers in battle. 62 people, including an American lawyer, were killed in the ensuing battle, and the Interior Ministry's forces turned back the parliamentary loyalists. On 4 October, the Russian Army decided to take Yeltsin's side, as the parliamentary loyalists had relied upon the support of the high command rather than sending emissaries to the barracks to recruit the lower-ranking officer corps. The army, including some last-minute defectors to Yeltsin, moved ten tanks to the White House, firing on the upper floors to create confusion and panic among the defenders. By noon on 4 October, troops had begun to occupy the White House floor-by-floor, and, by mid-afternoon, popular resistance in the streets was completely suppressed, barring occasional sniper fire.

Aftermath
On 5 October, an open letter from 42 members of the intelligentsia to the newspaper Izvestiya called for the disbanding and banning of all communist and nationalist organizations, the banning of all illegal paramilitary groups, an end to fascism and racism, the closing of press organs which inspired hatred and violence, the suspension of bodies of Soviet authority which refused to obey Russia's authority, the trial of the organizers of the coup, and the recognition of the Supreme Soviet and Constitutional Court as nonlegitimate. Yeltsin responded by banning all leftist and nationalist groups and the hate-inciting newspapers that same day, forced the dissenting regional soviets to resign on 6 October, imprisoned Rutskoy and Khasbulatov on 15 October, and pushed through his new constitution (supporting a strong presidency with sweeping powers to issue decrees) on 12 December. However, his economic program was defeated by the Communists and Ultranationalists, with the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia winning 23% of the vote due to Vladimir Zhirinovsky's neo-fascist, chauvinist declarations. Effectively, the 1993 constitutional crisis had ended Russian democracy and ensured that the president would hold all of the power.